Color blindness in largemouth

[aflightlessbird19]

Since largemouth bass lack blue color receptors as the experiment done by F.A. Brown Jr states, and you run a chartreuse black-back crankbait through a blue blind color blindness filter it looks identical to a gizzard shad pattern, white with a black back. This being the case, why is chartreuse black-back such a highly recommended and bought color for stained to dirty water? Wouldn't I have the same success on a gizzard shad when looking at the data from the experiment? After the experiment, I can't help but think it's a waste of money rather than just getting one or the other.

[Bluebasser86]

I don’t believe they see blue the same as they do white. I fish a solid blue bladed jig a lot and a white one does not produce nearly the same in the same conditions I’m using that bait in. Even if they see it as white, maybe it’s more opaque than actual white is because it’s a far more productive color in certain situations.

[Catt]

How bass preceive colors as seen by human eyes & interpreted by a human brain. 

[FishTank]

I don't know what they see but a lot of the baits that I have been catching fish on the past few years have some sort of blue in it. Not sure what it is about them but a bait with some blue in it has been a common theme to the fish I catch. It doesn't matter if it's soft plastic or hard baits. 

[king fisher]

I don't know what color bass, see, or how they see them, but if they want to get caught on a worm of mine they better like some shade of purple.  If they want a deep crankbait, they better like chartreuse and blue, and if they want to hit a rattle trap I'm fishing they will have to be hungry for a chrome with blue back.  If they can see and or prefer other colors, than they can bite some other anglers line.

[Bird]

I fish clear water and target bass with limited eye sight.

That's why I throw Ghost minnow and green pumpkin.

The better they see the more fake the bait looks. 😅

[Tennessee Boy]

8 hours ago, aflightlessbird19 said:

This being the case, why is chartreuse black-back such a highly recommended and bought color for stained to dirty water?

Because it is.  The more people throw it the more fish will be caught on it. 

 

8 hours ago, aflightlessbird19 said:

Wouldn't I have the same success on a gizzard shad when looking at the data from the experiment?

Yes.

[txchaser]

My best guess is because of the lack of blue cones, they have a hightened ability to percieve shades and hues in the colors they can see.

[WRB]

We don’t have a clue what colors bass see by dissecting their eye. Color is interpreted by the brain.

Experience contradicts that blue disappears in deep water but I have caught bass 50’ deep and the color they would eat was blue neon 4” French fry worm. 
Tom

 

[papajoe222]

I'm red/green color blind. Until I began keeping my soft plastics in their original packaging, I couldn't tell you if I was throwing a green pumpkin or watermelon worm. Of course I mainly throw purple worms (they look blue to me), so the problem rarely raised its ugly green head.

or is it red?   😜

This is why I rarely concern myself with what color to use.

[GetFishorDieTryin]

I tried buying into all the studies, but ultimately I think it's impossible to say for sure how bass see and react to colors.  I think there is bias, especially when it comes to certain colors.  If everyone is throwing red in March, lots of fish will taken on red. 

I have lots of confidence in blue, particularly blue fleck, and colors with a little blue in them, like magic and molting craw.  I've seen certain colors consistently smash others that according to a few studys appear identical to the fish.  Right at the end of the prespawn that pearltruese base color, like LCs crack or some Tablerock patterns out fish white and pearl consistently.  

[Tennessee Boy]

Brown’s study was done in 1937 and was ignored by anglers because most anglers love their colors.   A much better study was done in 2017 using more modern techniques.  The eyes were dissected and the cones were tested to determine their wavelength sensitivity.   They used this data to build a model of a bass’ color vision.   Because what the eye sees is interpreted by the brain they tested the model by training bass to identify certain colors the way Brown did in 1937.  The findings were essentially the same as Brown’s.
 

Here is a link to the newer study.  It has been discussed at length on this forum and like the Brown study it hasn’t changed many angler’s minds.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6347066/

[Pat Brown]

Color blind people still see contrast - I imagine bass perceive and react to the contrast a chartreuse or blue creates even if they don't see the color as a vivid hue.  Sometimes contrasting colors are the deal.  Sometimes blending in is the deal.  Color usually is very low on my list when trying to dial in fish but if I'm on a good bite I may play with color to see if it affects my size or catch rates.

[Tennessee Boy]

8 hours ago, WRB said:

Experience contradicts that blue disappears in deep water

Science also contradicts that blue disappears in deep water.   Blue light penetrates the furthest in water.   That’s why the ocean and swimming pools look blue.

Edited October 12, 2024 by Tennessee Boy

[Spankey]

Very interesting about the color blindness in bass. Never knew that or was never listening in the past about that. But I believe it. 
Gizzard Shad patterns and chartreuse black back, chartreuse black scale are very productive colors for me for both lake and river bass. 
This might be just an odd case which effects just me but I can’t seem to get River Smallies to bite a chartreuse w/ light blue back. But this pattern is more effective on lake largemouths. 

[A-Jay]

Studies regarding all things bass are cool, usually fun to read & ponder.

However I do not subscribe to any of them or their results.

Instead, I prefer to do my own 'research.'

All of which happens on the water in real world conditions.

As for what bass see or don't see, or if they are even using 'sight' as often as we think they do,

is not something I can say with any confidence.

But what I do know is if & when the bass are where I'm fishing,

that sometimes, color, size, profile, sound, & speed need to be a certain way,

or I'm not getting bites.  

Bass Fishing in total darkness taught me the same baits, (color, size & profile) that work during the day also produce at night. 

Like @Catt always says and I'm paraphrasing here "a basses food don't change color at night". 

Additionally, is there a chance that just like us, older bass lose some of the senses they had when they were younger, or do they get better ? 

Wish mine did that.

Finally I absolutely have 'favorite' colors of baits.

But they get in that club my producing big bites for me.

How or whether or not a bass sees them like I do, doesn't come into play to me.

If a pink flop flop with a treble hooks caught Giants,

I'd be rigging that deal up pronto.

YMMV

A-Jay

 

[F14A-B]

Exactly what A-Jay is saying… it’s confidence which is crucial. How does one obtain this? He alluded that experience proves success with this bait that bait, this color that color during different conditions etc. I have my favorites also. A blue back/silver rattletrap scores heavy in Florida waters but is also effective in Kentucky waters, for me! Plastic worm colors for me are motor oil or any shade of green up here, for me! In Florida it’s well known that Junebug is the favorite color for that tannic colored water. Gold actually reflects light better than chrome according to In- Fisherman magazine circa 1985. Maybe it does but my chrome plated rattle traps always were destroyed by LMB. I use red, orange, gold n black, green, blue, chartreuse n black and have done well with all colors with green particularly by Yozuri to be my best producer year in and year out, as far as crank baits or soft plastic is concerned . At the end of the day I always rig what I’ve done well with regardless of the myriad of colors that I may have. Fish your confidence. 
 

And yes, if us old salts are under the spell of the bait monkey 😂 then you know it’s a real thing. Happy shopping. 
 

oh & btw, mature lmb and smb are a totally different gig than the cookie cutter bass many of us all catch. 
 

I equate them with hunting whitetail superbucks.. just totally different behaviors. 

[TOXIC]

When I had an Elite Series angler stay with me for a week to pre fish for a tournament, his opinion was that we get too hung up on color.  He had 3 color groups….clear water, stained water, and muddy water.  He based his color selection on those conditions and went more with shades than actual colors.  

[woolleyfooley]

This is really interesting. It makes me wonder why black/blue jigs are so productive and also why Okeechobee craw (green pumpkin/blue) is so popular. 

[gim]

I think a lot of various colored lures get sold and used because they catch our eyes on the shelf or listed online, not because bass can or cannot see them. It’s like buying a frog because the top of it has an interesting color variation.

[WRB]

Every time this topic comes it takes me back to Dr Hill’s Color C Lector he came out with in the early 80’s. Lauren Hill was a pro bass angler and zoology professor who knew bass behavior.

Very popular device back in the day with companies offer Color C Lector color combination lures.

Tom

[RRocket]

If you want to see what bass MIGHT see, look at lures through a Tritanopia filter (no blue). Snap a pic and upload.

 

https://pilestone.com/pages/color-blindness-simulator-1?srsltid=AfmBOorWACAZt_B2YRafWBYRVQYjsNuh3WDDbsgdvM8w8A5fByPN7U1v

 

 Might no be exactly how bass see it...because who knows...but still a fun way to pass time! 

[txchaser]

54 minutes ago, RRocket said:

If you want to see what bass MIGHT see, look at lures through a Tritanopia filter (no blue). Snap a pic and upload.

 

https://pilestone.com/pages/color-blindness-simulator-1?srsltid=AfmBOorWACAZt_B2YRafWBYRVQYjsNuh3WDDbsgdvM8w8A5fByPN7U1v

 

 Might no be exactly how bass see it...because who knows...but still a fun way to pass time! 

Blue light blocker glasses work too. 

4 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

This is really interesting. It makes me wonder why black/blue jigs are so productive and also why Okeechobee craw (green pumpkin/blue) is so popular. 

I have a theory on the Okeechobee color - I see a lot of craws with blue on their raised parts of their claws and shells, and a dark color on the rest. Looks really similar to blue flake.

I like netbait's kentucky special even more. GP top, dark-red/scuppernong/maroon bottom, with blue flake on the bottom. Sometimes it's like a light switch.

[WRB]

Bill Murphy author if In Pursuit of Giant Bass wrote about bass color vision using white to get his point over. Bill was a dental tech expert on the color white.

As I recall Bill selected same shade of white form several suppliers and painted the exact same model diving crank baits from each paint supplier.

Bill trolled every lure documenting catch results and 1 lure out fished all the others,

Bill then painted the rest of the lures with the successful white paint suppliers white.

All the caught bass equally. 
Why was one suppliers white different that looked the same to Bill’s trained eye?

It turns out under different lighting, UV and Ultra Violet the white was different then the others.

We simply don’t know enough about how bass see colors.

Tom

[MIbassyaker]

I have commented on this topic before, as it is something actually know a little about (as opposed to every other topic, where I just flail around aimlessly).  I have a post-graduate academic and research background neuroscience and psychology, with emphasis in cognition and perception, and I teach about psychological and neural mechanisms of color perception at the college level.

 

There are many comments on this thread I would like to respond to, but unfortunately, I don't have time at the moment. Nor do I have time to craft a detailed explanation of color vision, how it works, and what we can reasonably know vs. not know about bass vision from controlled experiments. Suffice to say, there are quite a few misunderstandings in this thread. 

 

I am also long-winded and not very good at getting to the point.

 

The shortest, most direct answer to the OP's question is intensity.  Even colors that are similar in hue may differ in intensity of reflectance -- how strongly light is reflected from the surface of the lure.  Most versions of chartreuse that you find in lures are very highly-reflective -- more so than most versions of white.  So even if bass do not distinguish between chartreuse and white, a chartreuse lure may have greater reflectance than a white lure, and therefore may penetrate better than than a typical white in murky water. 

 

I say "may" because you don't know until you actually measure reflectance.  You also don't actually know  if chartreuse-black is better than white-black for attracting strikes on the water in the first place until you control for other factors, like angler confidence and expectations, which is impossible outside of a controlled experiment.

 

Anyway, here are some things I've said about this stuff before: